Mirror Mirror -- Gregory Maguire, Paperback

"Entertaining...profound....A novel for adults that unearths our buried fascination with the primal fears and truths fairy tales contain." --Christian Science Monitor

The acclaimed author who re-imagined a darker, more dangerous Land of Oz in his New York Times bestselling series The Wicked Years, offers a brilliant reinvention of the timeless Snow White fairy tale. Setting the story amid the cultural, political and artistic whirlwind of Renaissance Italy--and casting the notorious Lucrezia Borgia as the Evil Queen--Mirror Mirror will enthrall a wide array of book lovers ranging from adult fans of Harry Potter to readers of the sophisticated stories of Angela Carter.

The year is 1502, and seven-year-old Bianca de Nevada lives perched high above the rolling hills and valleys of Tuscany and Umbria at Montefiore, the farm of her beloved father, Don Vicente. But one day a noble entourage makes its way up the winding slopes to the farm -- and the world comes to Montefiore.

In the presence of Cesare Borgia and his sister, the lovely and vain Lucrezia -- members of the infamous Borgia family and decadent children of a wicked pope -- no one can claim innocence for very long. When Borgia sends Don Vicente on a years-long quest, he leaves Bianca under the care -- so to speak -- of Lucrezia.

She plots a dire fate for the young girl in the woods below the farm, but in the dark forest salvation can be found as well ...

A lyrical work of stunning creative vision, this literary fairy tale retelling gives fresh life to the classic story of Snow White -- and has a truth and beauty all its own.